Outcomes of diagnostic and therapeutic EUS procedures in live course versus routine service between 2015 and 2021: A...

Live courses are important sources of endoscopy education. While diagnostic and therapeutic EUS procedures have been increasingly performed in live courses recently, data on outcomes of EUS in live courses remain scarce. This study aims to compare outcomes of EUS procedures in live courses versus routine clinical service.

All diagnostic and therapeutic EUS cases performed in workshops at Prince of Wales Hospital at The Chinese University of Hong Kong from 2015 to 2021 were considered for inclusion. Therapeutic EUS cases were divided into 5 subtypes: rendezvous, access (biliary, pancreatic, and enteric), endohepatology, lesion ablation or injection, and drainage (cystogastrostomy and gallbladder drainage). Propensity score matching of procedure subtype, procedure date, and age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index was performed to match live course and routine service cases on a 1:1 basis for comparison.

After propensity score matching, 108 live courses and 108 routine service cases were included in the analysis. Access procedures were the most common therapeutic EUS subtype performed, followed by lesion injection/ablation and drainage procedures. Rates of benign and malignant indications for procedure were comparable in both cohorts. Technical success was 100% in diagnostic EUS in both groups. There was no significant difference in technical success in therapeutic EUS (96.7% vs. 100%, P = 0.496). Intraprocedure and postprocedure adverse events were also comparable in both groups. There were no 30-day procedure-related mortalities.

In this study, diagnostic and therapeutic EUS performed during live courses yield similar technical success and safety outcomes compared with cases performed routinely.